ChefDebbie said: ... I think if I'm going to invest time & effort doing this, I want to educate myself to have some return on that investment. Some things I have learned by trial & error-
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I suggest for any beginner (like me) to keep a gardening journal, with plant specifics, notes, pictures & anything pertinent so you can refer back to.
Debbie, you may be relatively new to gardening, but knowing that we all
have to learn by trial and error is the best and second-most advanced gardening wisdom I know. The MOST advanced wisdom is that you can't learn if you don't keep notes (I'm still learning that lesson).
BTW, Dave created a feature in the plant database that lets you keep notes where they will be visible to others. AND, their notes are visible to you. I think that's called "Grower Reports" , but I haven't used them yet. Maybe someone familiar with them would remind us how to enter one, and whether they are "just visible" int he plant database when you open up a plant record that someone added growers reports to. Things like "I planted these on XX date" and "picked my first snow peas on YY date".
If I were more energetic, I would keep notes on:
dates seeds started, size of cells room temp, whether or not a heating mat was used)
days to emergence
days to ideal transplant time based on rootball size
days to become root-bound
date actually transplanted out, spacing, recent weather
days to small leaves or pods
days for main harvest
pests
